[DOE LETTERHEAD]

 

March 29, 2006

 

The Honorable A. J. Eggenberger

Chairman

Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board

625 Indiana Avenue, NW, Suite 700

Washington, DC 20004-2941

 

Dear Mr. Chairman:

 

The Office of Environmental Management (EM) portion of Commitment 10B in the Department of Energy’s (DOE) June 2005 Implementation Plan (IP) to Improve Oversight of Nuclear Operations has been completed.  This IP was in response to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Recommendation 2004-1, Oversight of Complex, High-Hazard Nuclear Operations.

 

Per our commitment, each EM DOE Field Office has approved Quality Assurance Plans (QAP) consistent with the requirements in DOE Order 414.1C, Quality Assurance.  Specifically, EM has recently reviewed and re-approved, as necessary, the following QAPs:  Office of River Protection, Richland Operations Office, Savannah River Site, Ohio Field Office, Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office, and Idaho Operations Office (approved by Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology).  The Carlsbad Field Office QAP is not impacted by DOE Order 414.1C, and they plan to update the reference to the new Order during their next review cycle (June 2006).  All EM offices are on track with implementation and completing updates to EM contracts for inclusion of DOE Order 414.1C.

 

The Oak Ridge Office (OR) QAP update has been developed and is expected to be approved by the Office of Science by May 2006.  EM Headquarters is a part of the review and approval process for the OR QAP.  DOE will notify you when the OR QAP update is approved.

 

If you have any comments or feedback, please call me at (202) 586-0738 or Mr. Dae Y. Chung, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Integrated Safety Management and Operations Oversight, at (202) 586-5151.

 

Sincerely,

 

Dr. Inés R. Triay

Chief Operating Officer for

  Environmental Management

 

cc:    Mark Whitaker, DR-1

Russell Shearer, EH-1

Robert Johnson, NE-1

Donald Barnes, NE-70

Raymond Orbach, SC-1

Robert Warther, OH

Keith Klein, RL

Roy Schepens, ORP

Jeffrey Allison, SR

David Moody, CBFO

William Murphie, PPPO

Elizabeth Sellers, ID

Richard Provencher, ID

Gerald Boyd, OR

Stephen McCracken, OR